10 Eating Tips to Help You Minimize Allergy Symptoms

1 / 11 Allergy and Asthma Symptom Relievers

If you endure the itchy eyes, runny nose, and congestion of allergies, or the shortness of breath and wheezing of asthma, your doctor may prescribe one of a variety of antihistamines, decongestants, corticosteroids, bronchodilators, and other drugs to tame your symptoms. But making simple changes to your diet may also help you feel better. Here are 10 allergy-fighting foods and drinks you may want to try.

2 / 11 Sip a Cup of Green Tea

“Tea, especially green tea, with or without caffeine, is very good for people with allergies,” says Murray Grossan, MD, an ear, nose, and throat doctor in Los Angeles. Tea contains natural antihistamines, he says, which makes it a great addition to your diet to reduce allergy symptoms. Histamine is a chemical that your body releases during allergic reactions. Grossan especially recommends a morning cup of hot tea just when you get up to help prevent morning sneezing.

3 / 11 Avoid Spicy Foods When Pollen Counts Are High

Some people with seasonal allergies can enjoy a diet of spicy Thai and scorching Mexican foods during part of the year, but not when high pollen counts are triggering their allergy symptoms, Grossan says. That’s because spicy foods create an “outpouring of histamine” that only bothers you when it’s added to the histamine produced by your seasonal allergies. When your allergy symptoms are acting up, skip the spicy stuff.

4 / 11 Consider a Mediterranean Diet

There is some research to support the idea that adhering to a Mediterranean diet increases a person’s chance of controlling their asthma, according to a 2013 report in the Journal of Asthma. This diet includes lots of fruits, vegetables, beans, whole grains, fish, and olive oil, with a lesser amount of meat.

5 / 11 Don’t Eat Raw Foods at the Height of Allergy Season

Among other raw foods, raw apples or pesticides on lettuce may bother your allergies. During the height of allergy season, when symptoms are really bothering you, cut fresh foods out of your diet and stick with canned and cooked foods, Grossan suggests. Cooking foods lessens your risk of developing allergy symptoms. So switching from, say, fresh apples to applesauce may help.

6 / 11 Try Some Wasabi

Wasabi, the pungent green paste served with sushi in Japanese restaurants, might be helpful in opening up your nose and helping you breathe better when you have allergy symptoms, Grossan says. The next time your nose is plugged up, drop into a sushi restaurant for a bit of wasabi. It might do the trick if you can tolerate the heat. This method isn’t guaranteed, however, as wasabi also has the potential to unleash more allergy-related histamine in your system.

7 / 11 Eat Yogurt and Other Probiotics

Grossan strongly recommends that people with allergy symptoms add yogurt and other sources of probiotics to their diet. Probiotics are known as “friendly bacteria,” according to the National Institutes of Health. Typically these are listed on labels as lactobacillus orbifidobacterium and are similar to bacteria found in your digestive tract. Probiotics, which you can get from yogurt, miso, fermented milk, and dietary supplements, can help regulate your immune system so you’ll have fewer allergy symptoms.

8 / 11 Go Low-Cal and Lose Weight

Researchers have found that being obese may actually worsen asthma. A recent study compiling 15 earlier studies on weight loss and asthma found that, in all of them, researchers observed some asthma improvement after subjects lost weight. So if you weigh too much and your allergy symptoms include asthma, changing your diet and controlling your weight may help.

9 / 11 Stick to a Low-Salt Diet

Studies have found that eating a diet higher in salt may be associated with more severe asthma, and small studies have found that eating a low-salt diet can improve lung function, decrease symptoms, and reduce the need for medications in people with asthma. Good ways to reduce salt in your diet include eating plenty of fresh vegetables and cutting down on processed foods like frozen dinners and canned soups.

10 / 11 Up Your Omega-3 Intake

Some research indicates that eating a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids may be helpful for reducing asthma symptoms. In one study, researchers had 23 adults with asthma take an omega-3 supplement or placebo for five weeks. Those taking the omega-3s had lower levels of a marker of airway inflammation. You can get more omega-3s in your diet by eating fatty fish such as salmon, herring, sardines, mackerel, and albacore tuna.

11 / 11 Skip the Fast Food

Looking for yet another reason to limit how many burgers and fries you eat? A New Zealand study of more than 1,300 kids found that those who ate hamburgers occasionally or at least once a week were more likely to have asthma symptoms than kids who never ate burgers. The good news: A diet designed to reduce asthma and allergy symptoms with foods like fruits and vegetables and fish might not leave a lot of room for fast food.